Book 6
She barks through fissures gaping to her song,
1
Breaking the silence of their gloomy home:
' Tisiphone, Megaera, heed ye not?
Flies not this wretched soul before your whips
' The void of Erebus? By your very names,
' She-dogs of hell, I'll call you to the day,
Not to return; through sepulchres and death
Your gaoler: from funereal urns and tombs
I'll chase you forth. And thou, too, Hecate,
Who to the gods in comely shape and mien,
Not that of Erebus, appear'st, henceforth
Wasted and pallid as thou art in hell
'At my command shalt come. I'll noise abroad
The banquet that beneath the solid earth
Holds thee, thou maid of Enna; by what bond
'Thou lov'st night's King, by what mysterious stain
Infected, so that Ceres fears from hell
'To call her daughter. And for thee, base king,
'Titan shall pierce thy caverns with his rays
And sudden day shall smite thee. Do ye hear?
'Or shall I summon to mine aid that god
'At whose dread name earth trembles; who can look
Unflinching on the Gorgon's head, and drive
'The Furies with his scourge, who holds the depths
' Ye cannot fathom, and above whose haunts
Ye dwell supernal; who by waves of Styx
Forswears himself unpunished? '
Grew warm and liquid, and with softening touch
Cherished the stiffened wounds and filled the veins,
Till throbbed once more the slow returning pulse
And every fibre trembled, as with death
Life was commingled. Then, not limb by limb,
With toil and strain, but rising at a bound
Leaped from the earth erect the living man.
Fierce glared his eyes uncovered, and the life
Was dim, and still upon his face remained
The pallid hues of hardly parted death.
Amazement seized upon him, to the earth
Brought back again: but from his lips tight drawn
